play-doh is fun!

madelyn enjoys playing with play-doh, but she has found a whole new level enjoyment from her new play-doh octopus! she asks for it every day; usually more than once. yesterday she played with it for one hour by herself. yes, one hour! then she did another 30 - 45 minutes after her nap and even woke up asking for the orange play-doh (she had used pink in the morning and wanted to switch things up).

i can see her from my computer, so it gives me a lot of time to work while she is awake without having to worry about what she is up to (not that i really have to worry with her).

in the video she is not as talkative as she normally is when talking about her play-doh octopus.

sunday night we went to "family fun fest" at our church and madelyn got to show daddy how to work with play-doh. they had fun making eggs, bunnies, and crosses together. there were also two bounce houses set up (the whole thing was indoors - it is wisconsin after all). we took madelyn there first before the lines got long but she would not go in either of them - even though she was very, very excited to see them. she did ask to "bounce" when we were getting ready to head out. of course the lines were now very long. but she insisted that she wanted to bounce so i convinced dad that we should wait. we waited, and waited, and waited. madelyn waited in line and cried about wanting to bounce. when it was finally her turn matt lifted her up in and i quickly ran around to the side so that she could see me. and what did i see, her screaming and trying to back herself out. matt carried her away screaming. we put her down to put her shoes back on and she took off running back to the entrance of the bounce house screaming to "bounce". i had to explain to her that she had missed her turn and now we were going to go home. as we were starting to walk away she went running back crying to "bounce" again and tripped on the corner anchor weight bloodying her lip. the poor girl cried "bounce" with a big fat lip all the way to the car while i carried her. i had to convince her that i would take her somewhere else to bounce very soon. (also from 'fun fest' she got a smiley face tattoo on her arm - shown in the first picture. this was really exciting to her. it took her a little bit to understand that this 'sticker' didn't come off.)

since i am in catch up mode, last week we went to celebrate madelyn's friend prathu's 2nd birthday. madelyn had fun playing with prathu's new art table (it folds up to be an easel and magnet board seen in the picture) and slide. what was really funny to me is that some of the kids were playing "ring around the rosie" (one of madelyn's favorite requests of matt and i at home) and she wouldn't fall down. when we play at home she falls down before we get to that verse because she can't wait any longer to fall down and lay on the floor.

she has been pretending to be a baby a lot recently. i have posted before about getting into the baby swing, but here she is snuggled up with friend in her toy playpen. she isn't supposed to do this, but she looked so cute that i had to get a picture before making her get out.

today, i was complementing madelyn on what a good job she was doing climbing up the stairs (she has been asking to be carried recently). her response - "oh, thanks".

i have been so proud of her lately because she is forming really complete thoughts and sentences. like, "i want milk drink, please, mommy." it is so fun to hear her thoughts on things and have conversations with her about things that happen during the day. i think that matt really enjoys it too.

its not all sunshine and moonbeams though. she has been in another not wanting to change her shirt phase. i am pretty sure it has to do with her teeth cutting though. she complains about them "hurting" a lot and even cries out during meals in pain. another recent problem is that she is waking up early still and will only accept "mommy". if daddy tries to get up with her so that i can sleep she bangs on the door and cries for me before barging in and running to me. today, however, when daddy came to pick her up and carry her out (kicking and screaming) she ran to him, asked to be picked up and gave him two kisses and a hug! we were talking about it tonight how surprised we were at this sudden change in demeanor.

we have started looking at pre-school options for this summer and fall (regular school year start). it has been difficult for me for a lot of reasons, but matt and i agree that it will be really good for madelyn to go two days a week. now we just have to figure out which school will work best for our family. more to come on this later. love.